


The Legend of Adaine

by twiiinkle_toes



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Dimension 20 (Web Series)
Genre: all fantasy high characters in the atla universe, hallariel/cathilda in the bg, i know this is cringe leaf me olone, i respect you bill but im a lesbian, other characters will be tagged as they appear
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-27
Updated: 2020-08-20
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:08:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 13,665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24398530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twiiinkle_toes/pseuds/twiiinkle_toes
Summary: thought process here: oracle=avatar, didn't wanna be the oracle, doesn't wanna be the avatar. all the bad kids will be in here in time. recently rewatched atla and so here i am, a full adult writing crossover fics. get in the comments
Comments: 15
Kudos: 41





	1. Prologue

Aelwyn sat with her legs crossed and her hands folded in her lap. Her eyes were closed, but she could feel her parents standing behind her examining the straightness of her back, the cleanliness of her ceremonial robes. They were always there, at her back. Her ankles cut uncomfortably into the stone of the balcony. She did not move. In this remote corner of the air temple, stars provided the only light. Her father squinted up at them, calculating. 

“You have about five minutes until the avatar is taken out. You may begin,” he said. There was no need for Aelwyn to signal that she’d heard him. She began to meditate. 

Adaine was having a bad dream, as she often did. This one was different though, usually it was more abstract. She was in a house, floating with her back against the ceiling. Unable to sink back to the floor, the airbender began to explore the house. It was endless. Room after room after room, all of them bedrooms of little boys. Weird. The decor was all Fire Nation, lots of red. None of the rooms had windows, and none of the boys were awake, and when she tried to retrace her path she found that the rooms were changing behind her and when she tried to speak she found that she was voiceless. Adaine began to panic. Breathing heavy and heart beating fast, she flipped onto her stomach and pushed downwards from the ceiling with her hands and feet, but just floated right back up, face slamming against the beams. The wood was rough, scratching her cheek. Her throat started closing up and her eyes began to burn. Take deep breaths wake up its just a dream its just a dream and 

She was in a different room now, one where the boy inside was awake. Awake, and suffocating. He silently reached out to her, other hand on his tiny throat. Adaine outstretched her hand to him, pushing off the ceiling as hard as she could, but that just made the boy get farther and farther away. Adaine’s breath hitched. She couldn’t breathe. The boy made eye contact with her. Strangers, helpless and dying.


	2. Book 0: Air, Chapter 1: Fuck You

Her parents were there, in her room. 

“…what..?” Adaine got out, trying to rouse herself. Eyelids iron weights, she hefted her body onto an elbow. Heavy and slow.

“About time. It’s been almost a week,” Angwyn said.

“I told you it would take a while, father,” Aelwyn said, but Adaine couldn’t see where she was, her vision was all blurry and weird, “Her body is barely strong enough to contain it.”

Adaine looked down at herself. She looked up again and squinted, trying to find her sister.

“Yes, she is quite weak,” Arianwen said.

“Excuse me, I’m right here,” Adaine said. “What’s going on, why’s everyone in my room? Why am I so tired?” She rubbed at her eyes, hard. Her eyes only cleared up a little but it was enough to spot Aelwyn leaning against the wall in the corner. Her head had been shaved and her skin was red and raw, blue tattoos tracing the lines of her arms and legs. “Why did Aelwyn, what did she do?”

“Stop asking so many questions, Adaine,” Arianwen said, “and get out of bed. It will all be explained if you just listen.”

Listen she did. Adaine sat in disbelief before the elders of the temple, her parents, her bitch of a sister. They told her everything, about the Fire Nation’s slowly building plans to attack the Air Temples and start an multinational war, about how they’d discovered the avatar before the Fire Sages through some spiritual bullshit she didn’t understand, about how they hired an assassin to take him out—a child—so he couldn’t be used as a weapon, about how perfect Aelwyn used her perfect skills to project her spirit hundreds of miles away and rip Raava out of the boy’s dying body and shove the ancient spirit into Adaine, about how she was now expected to be their weapon against the Fire Nation, about how she was the avatar. Her ears rang.

“How,” Adaine stood and put her hands over her eyes, spinning in slow, shocked circles, “how could you think any of this is okay? You killed a child!”

“I didn’t to anything to the boy, idiot. A fire nation thug did all the dirty work,” Aelwyn said. 

“Quiet, girl,” one of the elders said. Aelwyn went white and sat a little straighter.

“Why? Why me?” Adaine asked. “I don’t want this.” She wrapped her arms around her middle and paced back and forth across the room. She was so hungry.

“Do not ask unnecessary questions, Adaine!” Angwyn snapped. “You’re the only one with the, temperament, necessary to learn the other elements. You have the most potential to grow. You should be grateful to have been chosen for this position.”

“ _Grateful?_ ” Adaine yelled, “I had _no_ choice in this, _Fuck_ you!” 

__Arianwen and the elders gasped. Angwyn stood, seeming to double in size, his face contorted in rage. Adaine threw her hand over her mouth, and ran. Without needing to be asked, Aelwyn trailed after her little sister, frowning._ _

__

__Never in her life had Adaine moved as fast as she did now. Airbenders were supposed to be light on their feet, and Adaine usually was, despite how unnaturally it came to her, but this time each footfall sent pains shooting up the arches of her feet and into her shins. All of her training and practice and forms left her, revealing a scared and lonely child. She ran. Bile built up in her throat. Stitches formed in her sides. She couldn’t breathe._ _

__Aelwyn caught her, of course. Swooped down from above and tackled her to the ground, brought her little sister kicking and screaming back to their parents, who locked her in her room with nothing to say except “Your waterbending master will arrive tomorrow. Behave.”_ _

__Aelwyn brought her dinner._ _

__“Can’t you see they’re treating you just as bad as they’re treating me?” Adaine asked._ _

__“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, darling sister, but I’m not locked in my room.”_ _

__“I saw when you were grappling me, there’s bruises all around your tattoos. There’s not supposed to be bruises,” Adaine said. Her sister spun on her heel and left without another word._ _

__

__After that, Adaine was never alone except when she was locked in her room. The only times she was allowed to leave were for waterbending training. No one visited. Her father sat in on the training sessions, sometimes._ _

__“You must progress faster Adaine, we can’t have the Fire Nation conquering the world before you’ve even started learning their element,” he said. He looked down on her from a raised dais at the side of the training grounds. Adaine grit her teeth and tried to block out his voice, tried to focus on passing a glob of water back and forth with Master Kir. It wasn’t too hard blocking out her father’s voice, she’d had lots of practice. Harder was ignoring all of the spectators. There was always a small crowd of them at her training sessions, mostly to gawk. Some though, were there to spar with. Aelwyn, one of them, and another a water tribe boy, Biz. Her eyes ran over the crowd and he made a disgusting face at her. She lost her hold on the glob of water and a little splashed on the floor. Angwyn made a quiet sound of disappointment, and Adaine just knew he was doing that annoying thing he did where he manipulated the sound waves so she could hear it as if he was right next to her from dozens of feet away. Adaine let the rest of the water fall to the floor._ _

__“Thats IT!” she yelled. Her voice boomed across the open sky, causing a herd of lemurs to take to the air in escape. A sound much to large to have come from her small, thin, body. “I’m not doing this anymore, not for you.” She sat on the ground with her legs crossed. “I’m done.”_ _

__There was silence, of a sort, for a moment. The lemurs stopped chittering and settled back into their hiding places. The ever-present wind stirred up Adaine’s hair and robes. A bison roared, in the distance. For just this short moment, Adaine let herself imagine that that had been enough and suddenly everything was okay. The sun was shining._ _

__“We do have a backup plan, you know,” Angwyn said, his voice quiet and still, perfectly clear in everyones’ ear, “if you’re going to lower yourself such as to refuse your duty to your people. But you’re not going to like it.” He nodded at Biz, who stood and moved in front of the dais. “Biz is your replacement.”_ _

__Angwyn let the training grounds sit in dead silence until his words set in._ _

__“Now, are you ready to get back to work?”_ _

__Slowly, Adaine stood._ _


	3. BK0CH2 Your Funeral

Aelwyn was having a panic attack. It didn’t make any sense, _Adaine_ was the one who got panic attacks. She walked (did not fly, did not run, did not show weakness) away from the confirmation that her parents did not value her sister’s life. Adaine was disposable. If Aelwyn made a mistake in a task…?

Don’t THINK about it Aelwyn, you’ve always done exactly what they wanted and never made any mistakes. Yet. 

Her pace increased. This was all so wrong. Adaine was doing what was asked of her. She didn’t have a choice, of course, but she hadn’t even put up that much of a fight, considering. Aelwyn had always wanted Adaine to just listen to their parents, it would make things so much _easier_ , but now that she was actually doing it—

Aelwyn threw up off the edge of the temple, whipped immediately back around. Good, no one had seen. Her chest heaved, fast. The air at the mountain-top temple was thin, but she’d never felt it until now. Tears began to gather at the corners of her eyes. _What the fuck is happening to me?_

Adaine knew that her parents didn’t love her as much as they did Aelwyn, if they felt anything towards their daughters at all, but this? (She watched her older sister walk away from the training grounds, bored, as if their father had announced they’d be fasting for the next week. Aelwyn didn’t love her either, and this was confirmation.) Replacement. Hearing the word had turned something off inside of the young airbender. Her eyes went dull, heart-rate slowed, mind emptied. She stood up, didn’t say anything, did her waterbending forms, fixed her hair. She didn’t speak for the rest of the day. Her father was the happiest she’d ever seen him.

In one instant, with that one word, she became an empty shell, the perfect daughter. Was this how Aelwyn did it? Doesn’t matter, she’s probably expendable too. Oh. That’s why she’s such a bitch, and always telling her to just do what their parents asked. Getting attached, holding onto hope of any sort, trying to be yourself, it’s all just asking to get yourself killed. 

For the first night since Adaine had discovered she was the avatar, Aelwyn brought her dinner. Both girls were shocked to see the sudden change in the other. Aelwyn barked a laugh as soon as the door swung open and her manic eyes connected with her sisters dead ones. The irony was killer. She slipped inside and quietly shut the door. 

“You should be careful not to let mother and father see you like this," Adaine said. Her eyes swept over Aelwyn, clocking in her wrinkled robes, red eyes, shaking hands. “You might find you’re replaceable.” 

Aelwyn, for the first time in her life, paced. Watching, Adaine ate her dinner.

“You’d better go, they’re going to be mad if you miss dinner,” Adaine said. Aelwyn opened her mouth but no words could find their way out. She fell into a crouch and wrapped her arms around a stomach. Adaine shrugged.

“Your funeral,” she said, going back to her meal. Aelwyn let out a single sob. It was almost a retch, croaking and forced. 

“It’s both of our funerals, can’t you see?” Aelwyn asked from the floor. “There’s no way we can keep them satisfied forever, they’ll just keep raising the bar higher and higher, they’ve been doing it to me my whole life, every time you messed up the bar for me got higher to make up the difference and I fucking reached it every time but I can’t do it forever I can’t.” On the last word her voice cracked, raising an octave and a couple decibels. “And-and now that you’re finally reaching their expectations they’re just going to make it w-worse for me because I’ve always been better than you but I can’t be better than the avatar Adaine I don’t know what to _do_ they’re going to kill us both they’re going to fucking kill us!” She shook from the effort of holding back over a decade of emotion, teeth chattering and skin prickling.

“You should’ve thought of that before you made me the avatar then.” Adaine said. Aelwyn fully broke into tears. Adaine did not look. If she did, she thought, the strength that she’d gained today would melt away. It was hard, but everything in her life had always been hard.

The door to her room flew open, and her parents were in her room, again.

“Aelwyn!” boomed Angwyn, “Spirits above collect yourself!” He blasted air beneath her, forcing her to her feet. “Is it too much to ask to have two good daughters? Adaine finally starts behaving and now this? Laghima save me.” 

Arianwen marched Aelwyn from the room and Angwyn slammed the door behind them. 

Adaine didn’t see her sister for some time after that. Her days consisted of breakfast alone in her room, airbending training, lunch alone in her room, waterbending training, and dinner alone in her room. Her progress in water was slow, but was progress nonetheless. The prowess she displayed in airbending would’ve earned anyone else their tattoos by now, but because the spiritual aspect of the discipline still evaded her, her parents refused to give her the honor they’d given her sister. 

After a few weeks, Angwyn announced that from now on Aelwyn would be instructing Adaine in the spiritual side of things, since it came to the elder girl so much easier. According to Arianwen, she’d been doing more mediation than ever in the weeks since they’d been apart. When Aelwyn entered the room, the walls Adaine had so quickly and so haphazardly built up shook, violently. Aelwyn was way too thin, her hair was growing back in much thinner than it had been before, and she had worryingly dark circles around her eyes. Any time Angwyn or Arianwen came near her she visibly drew back. It seemed as if she could barely stand.

Their parents left, and it was just the two of them alone in the room. Adaine realized that she’d grown taller than her sister. That was all it took to knock her walls the rest of the way down. Her face hadn’t even fully contorted into a frown before she was across the room with Aelwyn in her arms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i know the pacing for book 0 is kinda fast but i wanna get through the sad stuff and to the parts when they meet the rest of the bad kids. also short aelwyn rights


	4. BK0CH3 No

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> do you ever get tired of being nice? don't you just want to go apeshit?

Aelwyn had never been held before. She and Adaine cried together, cried about the abuse they’d been put through all their lives, about how much time together they’d missed, about how hard their future was sure to be, about the great responsibility they both now held, about the death of a little boy in the fire nation, about the war they knew was to come, about the fact that they were just kids. They cried about how the world was unfair, and cruel. Adaine’s head pounded in time with her sister’s sobs. Her ankles cut into the stone floor and she couldn’t feel one of her feet. Aelwyn, who had always been bigger than her, always stronger than her, always smarter than her, was tiny and frail and helpless. She wasn’t even crying anymore, just shaking and staring at nothing, face white, eyes wide and unfocused. 

Time passed quicker than they would’ve liked. The only warning Adaine had was a single footstep echoing in the hallway outside. She threw her body between Aelwyn and the door as Angwyn opened it. He didn’t speak, didn’t have to. One look at the scene in front of him was all he needed. His daughters in a pile on the floor, clearly not meditating. Again refusing to comply with even the simplest of requests. He raised his hand in a way Adaine was sickened to realize she recognized. Aelwyn, slumped against the cold stone wall, watched Adaine’s face twist into a snarl only a teenage girl could produce. The avatar’s eyes flashed white with no fanfare or warning.

“No.” The word came from Adaine’s mouth, her voice joined by a ghostly chorus echoing her decree, and a giant blast of fire. Aelwyn had thought the avatar state would be more dramatic, with storm-force winds and earth shattering quakes. Impossibly large tidal waves and screaming walls of fire. Adaine, fourteen years old and baring her uneven teeth like a gorilla-dog, was scarier. 

The fire had pushed Angwyn back a few steps.

“Discovered how to go into the avatar state, have we?” he snapped, parting the fire blast around him with barely a wrist movement and striding forward, untouched. 

“I’m going to fucking kill you!” Adaine roared, her voice still amplified by her past lives. Aelwyn slapped her hands over her ears, the walls of the temple noticeably trembling at her back. The sound was like a physical presence in the room. The avatar ripped chunks of stone from the mosaicked floor with her bare hands in an act that one could scarcely call earthbending and threw them at her father. He dodged them all, calming weaving through the barrage, as if this was a normal occurrence between fathers and daughters. 

“This really is unbecoming, Adaine, why can’t you be more like Aelwyn?” He’d reached Aelwyn, grabbed her skinny wrist, and hoisted her into the air. 

“DON’T TOUCH HER!” Adaine screamed, her own voice now dominating the chorus. Fire rushed from her red hot throat following the sound. In his efforts to disperse the flames, Angwyn dropped Aelwyn onto the floor. Her head cracked against the stone and the last thing she saw was Adaine, flames still licking her teeth, slam their father into the wall with a huge slab of the floor.

When Aelwyn woke up she was wrapped in a blanket on a stolen bison. Everything hurt. Adaine was at the reigns, hadn’t noticed she’d awoken. Aelwyn crawled to the side of the saddle and looked down. Ocean. Ocean, ocean, and more ocean. 

“Adaine,” Aelwyn said, “how long have we been flying?”

Adaine jumped in her seat, startled. She’d forgotten her sister was there. Her eyes were red and swollen, under them deep brownish purple bags. Her robes were torn and burnt, and the skin on her hands was more broken and bleeding than intact.

“I don’t know. I haven’t slept, if we stop they’ll catch us. Hours? A day, maybe? I can’t remember.” Adaine’s voice was scratchy and quiet. Her throat and mouth burned; the cost of her rage. 

It was cold, this high up. The air smelled of salt, and the constant thrum of the waves was hypnotizing. A couple sea gulls drafted behind the bison. Aelwyn started to take inventory of the saddle, but she was the only thing in it. 

“You don’t have a plan,” she said. 

“I burned down the temple.”

Aelwyn found that she was not sad about this. 

“Okay.” She paused. “We are going to have to stop at some point, we don’t have any food or water, and the bison is going to need to rest.”

The bison must’ve agreed with this, because he groaned and started falling from the sky.

“Keep your elbows in, darling!” Hallariel said, whapping her son’s elbows with the length of her rapier. 

“I’ve _got_ it mama,” Fabian said, proving his point by somersaulting between her legs and almost poking the padding on her back. Hallariel whipped around and poked him in the chest, hard.

“You almost got me there, son!”

“Well, yes, but I know you’re going easy on me, mama,” Fabian said.

“Of course I am! If I didn’t, you’d be dead.” The pirate’s words were matter-of-fact, a fact of which her son was well aware. Blunted swords be damned, she could gut him in seconds, and he loved her to death. 

“You’re improving leagues everyday, Fabian,” Cathilda said, appearing from the galley with some cold drinks and a light snack. Another loved one who could gut him. God, being a pirate was great.

“Thank you, mother,” Fabian said. He reached for a drink but stopped, because a flying bison quite literally fell out of the sky and crashed into the deck behind him.


	5. BK0CH4 It’s cool that you’re a pirate

“Please don’t hurt us,” Adaine said, palms open and towards the pirates, teeth chattering. The northern sea’s cold air cut right through her light robes and into her bones. The pirates didn’t respond, just stood there with swords pointed at the airbenders, swaying with the deck as its rocking settled from the bison’s crash landing. There were two women who seemed to be in charge, one short and one tall, both in black, a boy about Adaine’s age, and a crew of mostly women who were appearing, quite literally, from the woodwork. 

“Do ya speak the common tongue lassie?” the shorter woman asked. Adaine blinked and shook her head a little. Oh, yeah, of course these people wouldn’t speak her native language. She nodded, and tried again, forming the entire sentence in her brain before sending it to her mouth. It had been so long since her last lesson in Common. Her parents had thought it a language beneath them.

“Please don’t hurt us,” she said, her words breathy and accented. Aelwyn peaked out from behind the saddle, making herself known. More of the pirates drew weapons, but Aelwyn either didn’t notice or didn’t care.

“We’ve been traveling for more than a day, and we don’t have any supplies,” Aelwyn said. Her common was noticeably better than her sister’s, which Adaine found still annoyed her despite everything that had happened. Aelwyn shivered violently in the breeze.

Captain Cathilda the Black Ceíli looked the girls up and down. The older weak as a babe, the younger clearly deprived of sleep. Seemed harmless enough. Exhausted. And they’d come from the north, too, where that culty air temple was. Escapees, then. The captain lowered her blade. Hallariel followed suit, and with that the rest of the crew went back to their posts, leaving the three pirates and two airbenders alone with the bison on deck.

“Come on down from there, we won’t hurt you,” Cathilda said. “Fabian, give ‘em a hand, there’s a good lad.” Fabian gladly did as he’d been asked. Pirates didn’t see airbenders too often, and Fabian didn’t see kids his own age too often either. He tried to help the older one stay on her feet, but she shrugged him off and clung to her companion, even though Fabian was clearly in much better shape to be of assistance. They both looked like a stiff breeze could knock them over, and out on the open sea, stiff breezes were plenty. Cathilda and Hallariel led them into the captain’s quarters, and Fabian trailed behind, shutting the door behind them with his foot. Hallariel slid the girls onto the bench at a thick wooden table and wrapped blankets around their shoulders while Cathilda set about preparing a quick meal. Fabian sat awkwardly at the end of the bench. He tried not to look at the older girl’s recently and badly healed tattoos. She glared at him.

“Welcome to the Hangman,” Hallariel said. She dropped pints of ale onto the table in front off all three children before sliding a fourth down the counter to her wife. The airbenders shared a look and a quick exchange in Windspeak before taking careful sips. Fabian scowled. He didn’t like when he didn’t know what was being said. 

“What brings you this far from home?” Cathilda asked. There hadn’t been room for a full kitchen in the captain’s quarters, but there was enough for her to satisfy her hobby. The ship’s cook had mixed feelings about all this, but kept her mouth shut. Cathilda was the best captain a woman could ask for, anyways. 

“Our parents tried to kill us,” Adaine said. 

“So you’re sisters then?” Cathilda asked, pretending as if she wasn’t horrified by how casually the girl had made that statement. Adaine nodded. She and Aelwyn properly introduced themselves, and explained everything that had happened in the past few months, the words spilling out at first in Common and then in Tidetalk (which was native to all three pirates and in which the airbenders were much more proficient than Common). They’d only intended to explain their parents’ more surface level failings, but once they started talking they just couldn’t stop until it had all come out. It took a while, because Adaine had a panic attack halfway through and because Cathilda was insisting they ate and drank, and by the end of their tale they could see the sun setting through the portholes. 

“So that’s how I’m the avatar,” Adaine said. She hiccuped. Hallariel finished her fourth glass of wine and carefully put the cup away. Cathilda was doing dished to hide her increasingly concerned expression.

“What should I do?” Adaine asked. Cathilda chose her words carefully. These girls had put their trust in her and Hallariel so fast, and after everything they’d told them it was clear why. They were in such desperate need of positive adult figures that they’d latched onto two pirates they’d known for mere hours. 

“Well,” Cathilda said, “The first thing you need to do is get a good night’s sleep. In the morning we can talk about where you want to go from here.”

Fabian helped Adaine carry Aelwyn to a room filled with hammocks three high. Adaine didn’t quite know how to feel about this boy yet. He kept giving Aelwyn weird looks. And he kept quiet when his parents were talking, but it felt different from when she and Aelwyn did the same. It felt as if if he were to speak up he wouldn’t get in trouble for it, as if he was choosing to listen to them speak. She was jealous of his sword. Together they lifted Aelwyn into an empty bottom hammock. They stood in near darkness together, unsure of how to end this interaction.

“It’s cool that you’re a pirate,” Adaine said, still clutching the blanket Hallariel had put around her shoulders hours earlier.

“I know,” Fabian said. “It’s cool that you’re the avatar.”

“Thanks, I think.”

“Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.”


	6. Book 1: Water, Chapter 1: You’re a waterbender?

Adaine woke at about noon. Aelwyn was still asleep. The bunk-room was empty except for the two of them, and Adaine was unsure of what to do, so for a while she just sat in her hammock, listening to her sister’s even breathing. It got boring pretty fast. Maybe less boring and more _wrong_ , years of constant activity and self improvement still driving her to action despite how much it felt nice to do nothing for once. Not wanting to leave a trace, Adaine stood and carefully walked to the door, weaving around piles of crew member’s things. Hugging the door frame, she peeked out on deck. 

She’d almost expected the scene to be what she and Aelwyn had crashed into the day before; Fabian sparring with his mother, a scene with lots of noise that would be easy to ease into. But such was not the case. The Hangman seemed to be running business as usual, with no one on deck except for their napping flying bison and a few crew members moving here and there, keeping things quite literally afloat. A few of them chatted idly or called back and forth to each other, but it was generally quiet. Anxiety started to set in before she saw Fabian emerge from one door and disappear through another. In a rare moment of action without thought, Adaine slipped out into the open, crossing the deck with imperceptible footsteps before knocking on the door Fabian was behind. He opened it. 

“Oh, Adaine, you’re awake,” he said. “Uh, come in.” He ushered her into his quarters. They were much nicer than she thought a pirates quarters would be. And there was stuff just everywhere. Back at the air temple, Adaine had been allowed the bare minimum of personal possessions. This boy seemed to be swimming in them. There were crates and shelves full to bursting of things that seemed to be lacking any sort of organization whatsoever. A crate that Adaine had at first thought was dedicated to (granted, meticulously folded) clothes, also contained, upon further inspection, a couple of daggers and old books. 

“Don’t mind the mess, mama hasn’t given me much time to clean my loot lately. She says my swordsmanship isn’t up to snuff, says that at my age she could slice a dragonfly-beetle in half blindfolded,” Fabian said. He perched gingerly on the end of his bed, leaving Adaine to awkwardly loiter by the door. 

“I thought you were doing pretty good yesterday, at least from what I could see,” Adaine said, examining her fingernails. She tried very hard not to stare at the sword rack Fabian had up on his wall. 

“Um, thanks. Oh, I’m supposed to ask, what does your bison eat? We gave it some of our vegetables but we don’t have a lot to begin wit—“

“Oh I’m so sorry!” Adaine interrupted him, “I should probably tell him to go home, if he stays around it’ll be too easy for them to track us.”

Fabian followed Adaine back on deck, watched as she said goodbye to the beast and instructed it to go home. It roared, gently, and shook the ship a little as it lifted off and flew towards the horizon. The airbender bowed to its back before leaning back against the railing of the ship, as if looking for something to hold herself up with. Hopefully Aelwyn wouldn’t be mad that she did that without asking. Adaine still wasn’t sure how her sister was feeling about all of this, they hadn’t had any significant alone time in, well, forever really.

“You said last night that you knew a little waterbending already, if you, uh, were to show me some moves I could, um, show you the basics of sword fighting?” Fabian asked, breaking Adaine from her thoughts. 

“You’re a waterbender?” Adaine asked. 

“Yeah, and my father, Bill Seacaster, was the greatest waterbending pirate there ever was,” he puffed out his chest a little, “Fire Nation soldiers killed him when I was little though, and none of the crew are benders, and the tribes are too _scared_ of us to let us in port, and most other pirates—well what I’m saying is that I’ve never had any formal instruction.”

“I’m sorry about your dad. I’ve never taught anyone before, but I can give it a shot.”

Aelwyn woke at about two. Adaine wasn’t in her bunk. The bunk-room was empty except for Aelwyn, and she was unsure of what to do, so for a while she just sat in her hammock, listening to the waves lap against the hull. It got boring pretty fast. Maybe less boring and more _wrong_ , years of constant activity and self improvement still driving her to action despite how much it felt nice to do nothing for once. Not wanting to leave a trace, Aelwyn stood and carefully walked to the door, weaving around piles of crew member’s things. Hugging the door frame, she peeked out on deck. 

She’d almost expected the scene to be what she and Adaine had crashed into the day before; Fabian sparring with his mother. Instead, the boy was sparring with Adaine. It was halting and slow, because Fabian was waterbending and Adaine gripped huge two handed sword. Aelwyn blinked, hard. She was _sure_ Adaine was the bender and the boy was the swordsman. Weak as she was, it was getting difficult to stand, so she slid down the wall and sat next to the doorway, watching. 

It seemed years ago now, but Fabian appeared to be switching between two of the first forms Master Kir had taught Adaine. Adaine was just sort of wildly swinging the sword around. The spark of pride Aelwyn felt at being related to the clearly better teacher of the two surprised her. She decided to ignore it and watch the other two teens bicker and splash each other. She blinked and when she opened them the sun was farther along in the sky and the captain of the ship was gently helping her to her feet. 

“Mornin’, miss Aelwyn,” Cathilda said. “Well, afternoon. The other two are having some dinner, would you like to join them?”

Aelwyn nodded.


	7. BK1CH2 Good Talk Everyone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> exposition?? plot??? editing your writing????

Dinner was loud. Adaine seemed to have forgotten everything their parents had drilled into them about only speaking when spoken to at meals. She and Fabian were apparently already best friends, laughing and talking with their hands as they ate. Adaine still had that ridiculous sword at her side, and both of them were still soaking wet from Fabian’s day one waterbending. It was all very uncalled for, really. The weirdest part, though, was that Hallariel and Cathilda did nothing to stop this madness. When Fabian made sure Adaine knew that while he may be shit at waterbending he was still a brilliant swordsman, Hallariel _did_ cut in to remind him that he wasn’t as good as she was, but other than that the adults were quite passive. 

“Oh, Aelwyn,” Adaine said, “I told the bison to go home, I think if we kept him around we’d be too easy to track.”

“Hm, I suppose you are correct in that assumption. Makes it much harder to get off this ship through,” Aelwyn said, sipping daintily from her pint. 

“You’re welcome,” Adaine said. The avatar threw a rude gesture at her big sister, who pretended she didn’t see. 

“No need to worry about transportation, Miss Aelwyn,” Cathilda said. The meal concluded and Cathilda collected everyones dishes and washed them in a small bucket. The hierarchy on this ship was bizarre. “The Hangman can take you anywhere you need to go.”

“But before we discuss that,” Hallariel said, “The war.”

Right. The war. Funnily enough, swinging a huge sword around had made Adaine forget about the oncoming war. 

“You said the Fire Nation is planning to attack the Air Nomads, did you parents tell you how, or why?” Hallariel asked. Adaine sighed.

“No, that kind of thing was much too important for us children to know about.” She rolled her eyes. 

“We’ll worry about that later, then,” Hallariel said. “Let’s say the Fire Nation attacks tomorrow. What would the alliances look like?”

She and Cathilda posited that if anyone survived Adaine burning down the Northeastern Air Temple, they would join up with the Northern Watertribe, who were both physically the nearest and already had ties to the temple through an ancient and mutually beneficial trade agreement. The Southern Watertribe had been bickering with the North about a number of affairs for decades, and would probably jump at this opportunity to attack them. Similarly, the other Air Temples were not a fan of the stunts the Northeastern has been pulling, and wouldn’t shy away from a chance to put them back in line. (This was news to Aelwyn and Adaine, who had always been told that their temple was well respected and considered a political leader.) The Earth Kingdom, always rife with internal affairs due to its size, would probably stay neutral. So that meant the war would be three wa—

“Hold on,” Aelwyn cut in, “If the Northeastern is not in fact as well receipted as we’ve been told our entire lives, doesn’t it then stand to reason that our parents and the elders could’ve been lying to us when they said the Fire Nation would be attacking the entire Air Nation? Perhaps they’re only planning on taking out the Northeastern, and they failed to mention that to Adaine and I to keep up the illusion. Actually, now that I’m thinking about it, this could all be a huge ruse and the Fire Nation might not be attacking anybody.”

“Oh fuck me,” Adaine gasped.

“Ex _cuse_ me?” Aelwyn said.

“It’s them,” Adaine spoke over her, “It’s our shithole parents who are doing the attacking, probably. They’ve probably got some insane plan and made me the avatar in order to see it out.”

Cathilda frowned.

“It’s a bit early to come to conclusions, I reckon, but something nefarious is definitely in the works,” she said. Aelwyn wracked her memory, trying to dig up anything she’d heard in passing that could hint to her parents intentions. It was so hard to focus; her tattoos still itched and she was nauseous from eating too much. Not to mention grappling with the fact that apparently anything she’d even been told could be a flat out lie. She wished the bench she shared with Adaine and Fabian was a chair so that she could sink into it.

“What do we do?” Adaine asked.

“We need to gather information. We, meaning the Hangman,” Cathilda said. “You need to get to masterin’ the four elements so’s you’re ready to throw down with whoever it ends up needin’ their ass handed to ‘em.”

“You’re working on water, is that correct?” Hallariel asked. Adaine nodded. “It will be safest to search for a master in the Earth Kingdom, because however this political drama unfolds itself they’re always the most likely to stay neutral.”

“I’m supposed to find a waterbending master in the Earth Kingdom?” Adaine asked, glancing at the full bottle of wine Hallariel had drunk during this conversation. 

“Countries are just lines on paper,” Hallariel said with a wave of her hand, as if that explained everything. Then, seeing the young avatar was still confused, “Do you think the only air benders and air nomads live at the temples?”

_Yes,_ Adaine replied in her head, unsure about how that related to Earth Nation waterbending masters.

“She’s trying to say there’s waterbenders in the Great Swamp, dear,” Cathilda said. Aelwyn grimaced. The Northern Water Tribe might yet turn out to be evil, but at least they were _civilized_. Cathilda produced a map from somewhere and spread it out on the table. “The nearest port to the swamp is in Elmville. Should be able to get there in a couple days.”

“Great, well, good talk everyone,” Fabian said.


	8. BK1 Interlude

Adaine couldn’t sleep. Couldn’t stop thinking about all the possible falsehoods her parents could’ve been feeding her all her life. Also, sleeping in a hammock was weird. She was tempted to just climb out and curl up on the floor, which would feel a lot more like the hard, flat, beds they had at the temple. Aelwyn must’ve been in a similar dilemma. Below her, Adaine felt her sister slip out of her hammock, heard the planks of the ship creak even under her light footfalls. Peeking out over the edge of her hammock, Adaine caught the last flash of Aelwyn’s orange robes as she left the bunk room. 

The avatar tried to settle back down in her hammock, tried to figure out how to toss and turn without falling out. Her throat still hurt from breathing fire at her father. It was hard to believe that was only two or three days ago. She hadn’t been lying to Aelwyn, she really didn’t know how long she’d been awake flying that bison. She picked at her nails. Stretched her calves. Flipped around so her head was at the other end of the hammock. This was pointless. Closing her eyes, she counted to 30 (an old habit, a way of readying herself for an unpleasant task) and climbed out of her hammock. None of the crew woke when her feet touched the ground, or when she crossed the room, even though she wasn’t quite as quiet as Aelwyn. 

The night was deep. The only lights were the stars, all the skeleton night crew needed to keep the ship on track. It didn’t take long for Adaine to spot Aelwyn on one of the yards, a small huddled figure atop the huge sail. Augmenting her leaps with airbending, Adaine jumped back and forth between the two masts, landing on her toes on the yard next to Aelwyn. She sat next to her sister, letting her legs swing back and forth, feet gently tapping on the thick canvas of the sail. The wind was strong up here, and instead of feeling unstable, like it might knock her off, Adaine felt safer than she had in a long, long time. 

“Do you remember that trip we took to the Northern Air Temple, when we were young?” Aelwyn asked. Adaine shook her head. “I remember it, a little bit. I remember smelling the fruit pies. There were a bunch of kids eating them and throwing them at each other and eating the pieces off of their faces and clothes. One of the monks invited me over to try a piece but mother pulled me away. I think about that day when I meditate. Fucked up, isn’t it?” Aelwyn’s laugh was harsh; made Adaine flinch a little. Adaine didn’t respond, just shifted and leaned into her sister; made Aelwyn flinch a little. Neither sister pulled away, though, reveling in the freedom to touch shoulders and look at the stars.


	9. BK1CH3 The Nice Pants

“Hey, Fabian,” Adaine asked, peeking through the doorway to his quarters. “Can I keep this sword?” She held up the sword Fabian gave her to practice with the day before. She’d been carrying it with her everywhere since then, like a child with their favorite toy. It was almost four feet in length, with a wide blade and worn leather wrapped around the hilt. 

“Hm? Oh, sure, that one’s not my style,” he said, gesturing to his ornate rapier. “I’ve got tons, though, if you want to look through them.” He did in fact have an unreasonable amount of swords for a teenage boy. Rapiers leaning on every available surface, cutlasses mounted on the wall, short swords sticking out from under a table, and one monster sword that had to be six feet long propped up in a corner. 

“Thank you, but I think I’ll stick with this one. And thank you for letting me keep it.” Adaine bowed.

“Uh, you’re welcome?” Fabian tried to return the bow, but was stiff and clearly didn’t know what he was doing.

“Actually can I take something for Aelwyn? We don’t really have, like, anything,” Adaine said. 

“Yeah, sure,” Fabian said. He hadn’t encountered too many airbenders before these two, but he was sure none of them were armed, especially not the ones with tattoos, like Aelwyn had. These requests confused him, and he didn’t like the image of Aelwyn with a blade, but his moms had told him to try to make some friends his age, and friends shared things, right? That included swords, probably. 

Adaine dug around in a crate until she found a dagger to her satisfaction. It was one made to be decorative that had been sharpened and had since seen a lot of action. Fabian okayed her pick, and she scampered off, climbing and flying up into the riggings. She and Aelwyn had been spending most of their time the past two days up there. Once he caught them sparring. They looked like sea birds diving for prey; dancing along the yards, falling falling falling and then swooping up at the last minute, grabbing a rope, flying back up, and doing it again. It made him nervous. Everything about these girls was so alien. Adaine was too tall, Aelwyn too sharp, both too pale. 

In all honesty, Fabian didn’t really understand why he had to go with them on some quest to save the world. (Especially because it might not even be in danger? It was unclear.) He super didn’t love that this quest was bringing him 1. off the Hangman and 2. into a swamp. His moms said he had to go, said he had to carve his name into the face of the earth, even though _clearly_ that’s something an earthbender would do, _not_ a waterbender. But, he would much rather wade through a dirty, freshwater swamp than disobey his parents. So when Hallariel thrust a huge box of earth kingdom clothes into his arms, he accepted it. If they were going into enemy (neutral? again, it’s unclear) territory, they were going to do so with style. 

Fabian and Aelwyn stood outside Fabian’s quarters while Adaine changed into a prospective outfit inside. The former looked at his feet and kicked the box absentmindedly, pointedly not looking at Aelwyn, who was leaning up against the wall. Aelwyn’s eyes freaked him out. They were gray, like most air nomads’, but so light that it was easy to lose the irises in the scleras. The airbender shifted against the wall, noticed Fabian tense when she moved. 

“What’s this about then, scared I’ll rip your spirit out of your body and put it in my sister?” Aelwyn asked, her creepy eyes swinging up to glare at him. 

“ _No_ ,” Fabian said. 

“Stop threatening him!” Adaine called from behind the door. Aelwyn wanted to look through the box but Fabian was still kicking it, so the pair stood in thick, cold silence until Adaine came back out.

“She could only do that if you were dead, and you’re not dead yet,” Adaine said.

“Pleasant,” Fabian said. He looked up from his feet, and saw that she was wearing the bloodstain-free pair of dark green pants he had spotted in the box earlier.

“Hey, you took the nice pants!”

“I’m the avatar, I think I should get the nice pants.”

“I saw a pair with only a couple crossbow bolt holes in the butt, you could take those,” Aelwyn said. Adaine laughed. Aelwyn grinned. Fabian shivered. There was no reason for anyone’s teeth to be that sharp.

Aelwyn dropped down from the rigging and landed at the helm right next to Hallariel, forgetting non-air nomads aren’t used to people approaching them that way. The pirate greeted her with a rapier to the throat. Aelwyn didn’t flinch, which earned her a smile from Hallariel. It was threatening yet refined, and in that instant Aelwyn knew that for the first time in her life she had a role model. Hallariel lowered her sword.

“Brave, to do something like that on a pirate ship,” she said. “Or foolish.”

“Confident,” Aelwyn said. Hallariel took in her skinny arms and legs, hollowed out cheekbones, and bruised tattoos. A child near immune to fear, much like her darling Fabian. “Do you ever raid air temples?” Aelwyn asked. 

“Certainly. Not often, but when the fancy strikes. Are you asking for a glance at our spoils?” Hallariel asked. 

“Please.”

Hallariel called for a crew member to take over the helm, and lead Aelwyn to a damp corner of the cargo hold. It was dark, smelled of mold, and there was a half inch of tepid water on the floor.

“You may take anything in this area, under one condition,” Hallariel said. Aelwyn nodded, expecting this. “I grew up in the Northern Watertribe, surrounded by people just like your parents. Haughty, conceited bastards the lot of them. All your life they have been sharpening you into a sword. From this moment onwards, you are to be a shield. You must protect your sister, my son, and anyone else you happen to ally yourselves with on your journey. I can see you’re talented; probably more-so than your sister, definitely more-so than my son. You are older than them, you are stronger than them, you know more about the cruelty of the world than them. Do not let them fail.”

Aelwyn was shocked into silence for the briefest of moments.

“That’s quite a lot to ask in exchange for some second-hand loot,” she said. 

“Do not sell yourself short, Aelwyn Abernant. There is a reason your parents did not perform the extraction of Raava themselves. They did not expect you to survive, but you did. They did not expect you to ally with your sister, but you did.” Hallariel paused. “Upon second thought, you may take anything in the entire hold expect for things in the labeled boxes.” And with that she turned with a swish of her coat and strode into the darkness, the heels of her boots _splick splick splick_ ing though the veneer of water on the floor.


	10. BK1CH4 I'm Fig, Stay Here

Adaine found Aelwyn deep in the bowels of the Hangman. The elder airbender was digging through a box that looked like it had been forgotten about long ago, its wood wormy, wet, and coated in mold.

“Stealing, are we?” Adaine asked, trying to find dry patches of the floor as she made her way to her sister. 

“With permission,” Aelwyn said. “I already found this.” She held up an old glider. Its design was way out of date to the point of being borderline archaic, but it would fly. 

“Trade you?” Adaine said, brandishing the dagger Fabian gave her. 

“Tempting,” Aelwyn said flatly, “But you can keep your knife.” Adaine huffed, and tossed the dagger to Aelwyn, who caught it in a palm-sized gust of wind. 

“I don’t want it, I have a bigger one.” Adaine stuck her hip out to emphasize her sheathed sword. Aelwyn rolled her eyes and returned to the box in front of her. “Cathilda said she’d round up some things for us. Basic supplies,” Adaine continued. 

“Mm,” Aelwyn said, flipping through water damaged books.

“And she told us they’d come pick us up at the port in Elmville two months from tomorrow,” Adaine said.

“Wonderful. Two whole months of mosquito-wasps, wet shoes, and walking.”

“It’s better than being with mother and father,” Adaine said, and Aelwyn didn’t respond, because she was right. 

There weren’t many books in the box, and it didn’t take long to go through them all. They were largely uninteresting, but near the bottom there was one that caught Aelwyn’s eye. _A History of the Air Nomads_. Perfect. This would have tons of information about what normal air temples were like, and maybe even some explanation as to why theirs was the exception. She showed it to Adaine triumphantly. 

“Would you like to go read this together, or must you go play swords with your pirate friend?” Aelwyn asked. Adaine opened her mouth and raised a finger in preparation for what was sure to be a cutting response, but 

“Girls!” Cathilda stuck her head down the hatch into the hold, “We’re here.”

Elmville had to be the worst town on earth. It was small, boring, and not relevant enough to have a third characteristic to list. It was, however, a port town. Wait, that’s a third thing. Whatever. What matters is that the town sucks and that Figueroth Faeth spent a lot of her time at the port. Too much of it, according to her mom, her step-dad, and her school, which she was almost never present at. One of these days there’d be a ship that agreed to take her as part of its crew, and she could leave this dumb town and never come back. Today, though, didn’t seem to be that day. The port was completely empty; there weren’t even any tiny fishing boats. Fig sat on a huge crate of what smelled like rotten cabbages, absentmindedly strummed her lute, watched the horizon. It was hot. She was debating actually going to school when a smudge appeared in the distance. It sailed close enough that she could tell it was a pirate ship that had simply taken down all its flags. Again, a lot of time spent at the port. Hoping Elmville was about to get raided, Fig grinned, hopped off the crate, and moved around behind it to peek out at the ship. Much to her disappointment, the pirate ship did not dock. It was unclear for a while why it was just anchored out there, but then she spotted an approaching row boat. Now _this_ was interesting. 

Fig waited behind the crate until she heard the boat dock before peeking out again. Three teens climbed out, waving goodbye to the pirates who had dropped them off. There was a boy with dark watertribe skin, and two strange girls who were very clearly air nomads despite their Earth Kingdom disguises. The older girl had done a shit job of hiding her tattoos. Fig abandoned her crate and strode over to them, her boots making satisfying thunks on the wood of the dock.

“Hey.” Fig fell into step with the trio.

“Hey?” the boy said. 

“Need help with your disguises?” Fig asked.

“They’re _not_ disguises,” the boy said. 

“Oh really? Then who’s the current earth king?” Fig asked in Stonetongue. It was painfully obvious that none of the other three teens understood her. She grinned. “Well you’re _not_ earth kingdom,” she said, switching back to Common.

“Will you shut. Up?” the boy hissed. “Who even are you? What do you want? Shouldn’t you be in _school_?”

“Shouldn’t you? I want out of this town.”

“We’re going to the great swamp,” Adaine said, quite helpfully. Aelwyn and Fabian glared at her. Fig smiled.

“Take me with you!” Fig said. “My mom’s a ranger, I can steal some of her maps and supplies and stuff and help you get there. She’s been out there like a thousand times.”

“Why should we take you with us? We don’t know you,” Aelwyn said. Even though she was speaking Common, she let the breathiness and whistles of Windspeak leak into her voice, like a possum-cat arching it’s back. She’d fallen into step behind the other three teens, footfalls so gentle Fig had forgotten she was there.

“Like I said, I come with supplies,” Fig said, a little shaken, but undeterred. “Plus I can help you look more like natives, because your disguises really do suck. And I’m one more person to share the work load with, and I can fight, and—“

“Okay, you’re in.” Adaine said.

“Adaine!” Fabian shouted and Aelwyn hissed. Adaine shrugged. She was just happy to have found another friend so easily. 

“Thank you! You won’t regret this. I’m Fig, stay here.” Fig ran off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> idk if its annoying or not that im uploading 100000 tiny chapters, this is just the easiest way for me to work


	11. BK1CH5 Well, Fuck

“You can’t just go around trusting random people like that!” Aelwyn said, in Windspeak. “Did you forget that we’ve been lied to our entire lives?”

“She seems nice,” Adaine shrugged, matching the language.

“She had yellow eyes, which means she’s _probably_ fire nation, which means she _might_ be the enemy!” Aelwyn said. Adaine crossed her arms.

“You hear how ridiculous you sound, right?” she said.

“Stop speaking languages I can’t understand!” Fabian said. Both sisters turned as one to glare at him, something he was absolutely not emotionally prepared for. They went back to their whisper shouting, and Fabian walked off and plopped down on a bench, elbows on his knees and head in his hands. They’d been off the boat for all of five minutes. He sighed. He’d always wondered what it would be like to really hang out with girls his age, and so far it had not been even remotely like he’d expected. Maybe this new girl would be different. Less… weird.

The new girl was not less weird. Fabian brushed arms with her as they walked; her skin was dry and warm. Her hair looked scratchy and heat damaged, as if it would poke you if you touched it. She also seemed to have a lot of delinquent knowledge, which Adaine said he couldn’t judge her for because he was a pirate, but it’s not like being a pirate automatically made one a delinquent, Adaine. More than anything, though, Fig was convenient. She’d brought them clothes that didn’t have suspicious holes and stains, and had even given Aelwyn gloves and a hat that looked only a little bit out of place to cover her tattoos. Even better, her (mom’s) maps were much more detailed and recent than the one Cathilda and Hallariel gave them. They’d laid the biggest one out on their table in a tea shop called Basrar’s.

“This is the fastest way to get there,” Fig said, poking at the map with a chopstick (Aelwyn frowned at the grease stain Fig had left on the paper), “But it involves a lot of off roading. We can also get there from this road, but it’ll add on some time. Probably easier though.”

Fabian and Aelwyn immediately launched into a fight about which way was superior, Fabian arguing for ease and Aelwyn safety. Adaine couldn’t really care less about which route they took. Fig slurped her tea and her noodles, happy to be included. 

“So,” Fig said, “Why are you guys going to the swamp?”

“I can’t say with all these people around,” Adaine gestured to the packed tea shop. “Why are you trying to leave town?”

“I hate my mom and I want to find my real dad.”

Adaine nodded solemnly. 

“I hate my parents too,” she said.

Fig jumped into the telling of her entire life story, starting with how her mom cheated on her step-dad with a high ranking fire nation officer, and ending with a detailed explanation of why she hadn’t gone to school that morning. It sounded rehearsed. Fabian and Aelwyn still hadn’t decided on a route. Adaine was starting to think this was less about which route they took to the swamp and more about which of them got to be the leader of their little group.

“I know I said your disguises suck, but your pants are actually pretty nice,” Fig said. Adaine grinned, and Fabian got up wandered off towards the bathroom, muttering something about not being able to deal with this right now.

“He seems stressed,” Fig said.

“He’s scared Aelwyn is going to kill him in his sleep and rip his spirit out of his body and put it in mine,” Adaine sighed.

“Oh,” Fig said, “I didn’t realize that was a concern.”

“It’s not, you can’t put a human spirit into a body it doesn’t belong to,” Aelwyn said. She sipped from a cup of tea that contained more caffeine than Fig had consumed in her entire life. (Basrar had tried to warn the airbender about the blend when she ordered it, but she waved him off, uninterested.) “Furthermore, I suspect if I went back into the spirit world so soon I would not be very well received.” She grimaced, took another polite sip, then went back to the math she was doing on the edge of the map, working out probable travel times.

“Have you ever,” Fig lowered her voice, “killed someone?”

“Not yet,” Aelwyn said without looking up.

“We’re going to kill our parents,” Adaine said, matter-of-factly. She leaned over Aelwyn’s shoulder to get a look at her work. “You forgot to factor in encounters and difficult terrain.”

“I did not, I’m working that in last,” Aelwyn said.

Fig looked at the two airbenders in front of her and thought about all the other ways her day could’ve gone.

“What the fuck is _that_?” Fabian asked, sliding back into his seat. 

“Math,” Adaine smiled.

“That’s not math, math is I stole 100 gold from this town and 200 gold from that town so now I have 300 gold,” Fabian said.

“That’s theft,” Aelwyn said.

“It’s redistribution of wealth,” Fabian said, parroting something he’d heard Hallariel say a thousand times. Fig’s mind and eyes had begun to wander, completely uninterested in math, semantics, and politics as she was. Basrar’s tea shop was always full, so it wasn’t weird in of itself that two men just walked in the door. What _was_ weird about it was that they were air nomads. Water tribesmen weren’t uncommon in Elmville due to the port, and there was a small neighborhood or Fire Nation folks on the west side, but monks were a rare sight. Fabian and Aelwyn were arguing again, this time about what does and does not constitute theft, so Fig gently nudged Adaine’s arm.

“Hm? Ohhhhhh shit,” Adaine said as she followed Fig’s pointing finger. She recognized the men from her temple. They were a part of the group of thick, strong-bodied airbenders that the elders always sent on secret missions. Fig snatched the map from under Aelwyn’s fingers and furiously started rolling it up.

“Hey!” Aelwyn said. Adaine, eyes wide, jerked her head towards the monks.

“Well, fuck,” Aelwyn said.


	12. BK1CH6 Sorry Basrar

“I mean, we fight them, right?” Adaine whispered. 

“I don’t see another way out of this predicament,” Aelwyn said. 

Fabian threw a handful of gold on the table, way too much for what they had ordered, but not quite enough to cover the property damage they were about to cause. Fig shoved the map into her bag and swept the pencils in on top of it. All four teens stood carefully and shouldered their packs, backs to the door. 

“Window,” Aelwyn said. She spun and slammed her glider on the floor, sending a blast of air at the monks. Half a beat behind, Adaine blew the shudders back on the nearest window so hard with a spinning kick that they flew off their hinges and into the street. Before they even hit the dirt Fabian leapt through the window like a panther-gazelle, drawing his rapier in the same motion. The monks flew across the room towards them, clearing tables and heads in a single bound, pushing themselves off the ceiling to come back down, getting closer closer closer, but Fig had clambered on top of the table and caught them in the air with a huge, untamed ball of roiling flames.

“What the fuck!” Aelwyn yelled, narrowly throwing herself out of the way. She _fwip_ ped her glider open and spun it like a baton, placing herself firmly between Adaine and the monks. 

“Are you guys _coming_?” Fabian asked. The windowsill cut into his stomach where he was reaching back in the window so he could help someone through. Adaine soared past Fig over the table, grabbed the upper edge of the window, and swung out, landing on her toes between the shutters in the street. 

“Sorry Basrar!” Fig yelled. Still standing on the table, she planted her hands on Fabian’s shoulders and leap-frogged over his head, landing on all fours behind him.

“This is serious!” Fabian said. Fig just smiled at him.

Still inside the building, Aelwyn and the monks danced around each other, Fig’s fire, fleeing customers, and Basrar, who was in tears. Aelwyn ducked under a punch, stomped on a foot, jammed the end of her glider into a chin. One of them got hands on her waist and her breath hitched, but then Fig shot another insanely huge fireball through the window and they let go and Aelwyn threw herself flat on the floor and scrambled under a table and there was a hand on her ankle and she couldn’t breathe for the smoke and Adaine was yelling something but then Fabian’s hand found hers and he yanked her from the monk’s grip and they jumped out the window as one. The four teens took off towards the woods, the monks not far behind them. 

“You almost killed me!” Aelwyn coughed at Fig.

“I’m sorry, I don’t really know how to control it!” Fig yelled. Aelwyn made a noise between a dry heave and a frustrated groan. Fig shot more fire behind them at the monks but it went wide and almost hit a building.

“Stop _doing_ that!” Fabian yelled. Aelwyn thrust her glider at Adaine.

“Get out of here and find us later,” she said. Adaine didn’t take the glider. “Go!” Aelwyn screamed. The monks had taken flight and were gaining on them with alarming speed. Adaine knew their gliders would be faster than their ancient one and she was running out of time but it felt so wrong to just _leave_ but Aelwyn had never screamed like that before but 

Adaine ripped herself out of her thoughts, dropped her pack, accepted the glider from her sister with a pained expression, and catapulted herself into the sky. Aelwyn skid to a stop. 

“Don’t let them follow her!” she said, arms pumping in her effort to summon enough wind to alter the monks’ course.

“We’ll be back for you, miss Abernant!” the bigger monk said. He and his companion sailed over her head and through Aelwyn’s tornado before she’d been able to whip it up strong enough. 

“Boost me!” Fabian said, running past Aelwyn after the monks to get momentum for a jump. Aelwyn slid underneath him as he left the ground and sent a wave of air after him, propelling the pirate sword first into the monk who’d taunted her. They careened into the other monk and all three of them fell tens of feet out of the sky, bones and gliders cracking on impact. The monk Fabian stabbed had landed head first, dead upon impact. Fabian pushed himself to his feet, put a boot on the man’s chest and ripped his rapier from his body, trying not to show how shaken he was. Aelwyn dropped to the ground with her knees pinning the remaining monk’s arms to his sides, whipped her dagger from her belt, and held it to his throat. 

“Are my parents alive?” she snarled.

“Yes, and they’re coming for you!” the monk singsonged. 

“Good.” Aelwyn slit his throat.

Angwyn and Arianwen Abernant crawled out from beneath the rubble of their home, battered, and angry, but alive. They did not help each other. Both airbenders were covered in dust and bruises. Angwyn had a black eye and a broken arm, and Arianwen sported a few broken ribs. Nothing some waterbending couldn’t fix. A quick survey of the survivors revealed that Adaine had in fact done them somewhat of a favor by burning down the temple. None of the elders had survived, leaving Angwyn and Arianwen with complete control. Angwyn smiled, and started drafting a letter to the Firelord in his head. 

A little over a week later, the Hangman sailed past the ruins of the temple, at a distance. Close enough, though, to spot two Northern Water Tribe ships anchored nearby, tiny specks of people on gliders moving through the clouds, and the beginnings of rebuilding efforts. There were survivors, then. Safe to assume the Abernants were among them. Cathilda the Black stepped back from the telescope and turned to her wife with a frown. 

“We need more information,” she said. 

“Leviathan?” Hallariel asked.

“Leviathan.”

Adaine had been circling the forest for almost a full panicked hour, heart racing and eyes watering. What if they got captured, what if she never found them, what if they were dead? When she finally spotted three familiar figures in a small clearing the relief was so strong it sent her tears spilling. She dipped into a deep dive, landing practically on top of Aelwyn.

“Don’t you _ever_ make me do that again,” she said, throwing the glider at Aelwyn as hard as she could. The older airbender let it hit her in the shoulder and thud to the ground.

“No promises,” Aelwyn said. Adaine spotted the blood spatter on her shirt. 

“Did you kill them?” she asked. 

“Fabian killed one of them, technically,” Aelwyn shrugged.

“I broke my wrist,” Fabian moped. 

“Stop complaining, it’s better that than get taken to our parents,” Aelwyn said. 

“Okay what the in name of the goddamned Earth King is up with you guys?” Fig asked. Adaine sighed, and wiped her eyes. 

“Let’s go, I’ll explain while we walk.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry basrar


	13. BK1CH7 Earthbenders following Sol?

The hike to the swamp took a week. Fabian and Aelwyn had never decided on a route—but the monks made that choice for them when they chased the teens into the woods outside town. It was a lot of walking, and Adaine was tired. She was tired, and sweaty, and greasy, and dirty. The blisters on her feet had just started to heal over, but new ones were already forming on top of them. The thin slippers airbenders wore were great for flying, but Adaine could feel every dip and bump in the earth through their soles, which were wearing thin faster than her patience. Her body felt heavy, which was _weird_. It was so much easier to just fly everywhere. Which is what Aelwyn was doing, the lucky bastard. It was fair, Adaine supposed, considering her sister was still incredibly weak from whatever their parents did to her in the months they were apart. She wouldn’t talk about it. She punched through clouds hundreds of feet above the canopy. 

“Are they like, okay?” Fig asked. She and Fabian blazed the trail a ways ahead of Adaine. The forest got thicker, taller, and wetter the further they went. Adaine trailed behind more often than not, and they only ever saw Aelwyn when they stopped for breaks and to make camp each night. The airbenders stayed up long past the death of the fire, whispering to each other in Windspeak and pouring over Aelwyn’s book of Air Nomad history, drawn faces illuminated by gently pulsing orange coals.

“In general? No, they’re not,” Fabian said. “Of course they’re not.” He gently whapped a big stick against each tree he passed, with his left hand. His right hand, his good hand, his _sword_ hand, was all wrapped up in Fig’s attempt to set his broken wrist. Adaine had tried to heal it with waterbending, but she didn’t actually know how to do that and all that did was make his hand wet and cold and Adaine more upset than she already was.

“I mean, we should try and do something about it, right?” Fig said, fingers not quite strumming at her lute, bouncing between chord fingerings on instinct, a nervous habit. 

“Isn’t that what we’re doing, fucking, traipsing through the woods?” Fabian kicked a small rock. He was decidedly not having a good time, but got the sense that he and Fig had to be the strong ones in their little quartet, for now. 

“I don’t know, I just met you all like two days ago.” Fig slowed her pace to allow Adaine to match step with her and Fabian. 

“Hey,” Fig said.

“Hey,” Adaine said. 

“Do you want to take a half day? It shouldn’t slow us down too much,” Fig said.

“Hm, I suppose getting some sparring in would be good for all of us,” Adaine said.

“Or we could just like, chill,” Fig said, pulling a cigarette from her pocket. She lit it with a snap of her fingers that produced a flame way too big for the job. 

“Yeah, that’s what she said, sparring,” Fabian said. “Your fire bending sucks.”

“It’s not my fault I’ve never had a teacher!” Fig bristled. Her cigarette flared with her temper.

“Well, after I master water and earth I’ll have to do fire,” Adaine said. “I don’t know when that will be, but if you’re still around I’m sure we could learn together.”

“I’m in,” Fig said. She threw her arm around Adaine’s skinny shoulders. “You know, those monks were the first people who haven’t just run away when I shoot a big ball of fire at them.”

“How often have you done that? How are you not in _jail_?” Fabian asked, remembering the smoldering shell Fig had reduced Basrar’s to in about 12 seconds. 

“Don’t worry about it,” Fig said, nonchalant. “It’s not important.” 

“I thought it was pretty cool,” Adaine said. She let her head fall so it hit Fig’s with a soft bonk.

“You would, you’ve also burned down a building,” Fabian said. 

“Don’t worry Fabian, I’m sure there’ll be a building you can burn down in the swamp,” Fig said. She took a drag from her cigarette and blew out embers with the smoke. Fabian squinted at her, completely unable to tell if the firebender was being sarcastic or not. 

“How am I the responsible one, I’m a pirate!” he said.

“You did murder that monk,” Fig said.

“Yes, and it was the responsible thing to do at the time,” Fabian huffed. Then his stomach growled, and he decided the responsible thing to do was stop for lunch. Adaine did that weird airbender whistle she always did that only Aelwyn could hear, and the elder airbender swooped out of the sky like a carrion bird.

They ( _We should come up with a team name_ , Fabian says, _That’s wholly unnecessary_ , Aelwyn says, _We could just be Team Avatar_ , Fig says, _Absolutely not_ , Fabian and Aelwyn say) can hear the swamp before they can see it. Rather, they can hear what is happening to the swamp. There’s the booming, resonant thuds of clumps of earth hitting the ground, and almost painfully sharp splicks of huge chunks of stone breaking the surface of the water. Backing it all, the distant hum of voices, so faint it blended into the thrumming of insects’ wings. Aelwyn dropped from the sky, confused. 

“There’s a group of earthbenders over there,” she said, “It looks like they’re trying to fill in the swamp and build houses?”

“Not these idiots again,” Fig sighed. “It’s probably a bunch of missionaries. They’ve got it into their heads that the swamp needs to be ‘dried out in the name of the sun spirit’ or some bullshit like that. My mom’s been out here like six times to help the tribesmen to get them to leave. Shit, I hope she’s not here.”

“Earthbenders following Sol? Shouldn’t they be, I don’t know, following the earth spirit or something?” Fabian asked. He and his moms followed Tui and La, the moon and ocean spirits, like any self respecting pirates and water tribesmen would. Fig made an “I dunno” sound. Aelwyn made a face that meant she was about to lecture. Adaine plopped down on a rock and pulled out an apple.

“Sol is the spirit of the Sun Warriors, obviously,” Aelwyn started.

“Sun Warriors?” Fabian and Fig asked.

“Don’t interrupt me,” Aelwyn said. Fabian and Fig looked at Adaine, who shrugged and made room for them on her rock. “Some modern Fire Nation citizens follow Sol, as do a small number of Air Nomads,” Aelwyn continued, pacing a little bit to jog her memory. “Most Earth Kingdom citizens don’t follow spirits—as the earth spirit, Sa, has not been seen in quite some time—instead giving reverence to badgermoles or nothing at all. There are exceptions to this, the biggest being the Solesians. They believe that the whole world used to be covered in water, and when Sol was created he dried up some of the oceans, exposing earth for the first time. This is, of course, absurd, and absolutely not at all what happened.”

“How do you know?” Fig asked.

“I am very smart and I have been to the spirit world many times,” Aelwyn said.

“Rub it in, why don’t you,” Adaine said.

“I will,” Aelwyn smiled sweetly. Adaine flipped her off, both glad and annoyed to see that she was acting like her normal bitch self again. “It sounds like they’re on some self-appointed spiritual mission to continue Sol’s ‘work’ by filling in the swamp and creating more land.”

“That’s all very boring, let’s go check it out,” Fabian said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it was so hard to explain why earth kingdom people would follow a sun spirit but by the grace of sol himself i think i did it. guess who's coming in next! ;)


	14. BK1CH8 Can we meet your mom?

“I’ll sneak in, you guys stay here,” Fig said. 

“That is not happening,” Aelwyn said.

“What, why?” Fabian whined.

“Are you sure?” Adaine asked.

“Look, I did the best I could with you,” Fig gestured to the modifications she’d made to their Earth Kingdom outfits. Aelwyn had a headband and fingerless gloves to cover her arrows and one of Fig’s shirts, but the shirt wasn’t _quite_ long enough to fit properly, and she still had sailor’s pants and Air Nomad shoes. It was… something. Fabian admittedly did look Earth Nation. He just looked like an Earth Nation pirate instead of a Water Tribe one, and it was clear the Solesians were not the type to take to pirates. Adaine was the closest to passing as a local, mostly due to her fantastic pants, but she was also the last person they wanted to get captured. Which left Fig.

“But it’ll be easier to gather information if just one of us goes, and I’m our best bet,” Fig continued. “Just wait here, I’ll be in and out in fifteen minutes, no problem.”

It was seven minutes later, when, watching the camp from the safety go the tree line, Aelwyn saw one of the tents catch fire. She sighed, and turned to where Fabian and Adaine were sitting in the dirt with their backs against trees. Fabian had been flipping a coin, amazed that it kept landing on heads, and Aelwyn couldn’t believe that he hadn’t noticed Adaine was affecting its trajectory with subtle airbending every time. And this boy wanted to be group leader.

“Our inside woman has lit a tent on fire. I’m going in,” Aelwyn said. She sucked the coin from Fabian’s hand into her own, and pocketed it. He shrugged.

“Let’s just all go,” Fabian said. 

“Yeah, how much worse could it get?” Adaine asked.

“You just _left_ Gilear?!” Sandra Lynn exclaimed, because of course she was here, it was just Fig’s luck. She knew not listening when her mom talked about work was going to bite her in the ass one of these days. Sandra Lynn had been mediating a discussion between the Solesian leaders and Chief of the Foggy Swamp Tribe when she’d spotted her daughter peeking out from behind a tent.

“Yes, I just left _Gilear_ , because he’s not my dad and has no right to know every little thing I do!” Fig gestured wildly as she yelled. One of those gestures happened to produce fire. Shit.

“They’re attacking us!” one of the Solesians who’d been watching the meeting yelled.

“What? No, no nonono-“ Sandra Lynn started, but it was already too late. The Solesians held spears and stones at the ready towards the half dozen Tribesmen who’d accompanied their Chief to the meeting, and the Tribesmen whipped water from flasks at their hips, and three weirdly dressed teens were elbowing their way through the growing crowd, and this made one of the Solesians trip and his spear fell towards a Tribesman, and that’s all it took and everyone was attacking and more Tribesman were running in from the trees and god _damn_ it Figueroth. 

As soon as the fighting started the airbenders had melted into the madness, leaving Fabian all alone to defend himself with his off-hand. Luckily no one seemed quite sure whose side he was on, and mostly left him well alone. He just wished— _slash_ —that Adaine and Aelwyn— _stab_ —would fucking communicate with him— _swipe_ —instead of just sister-mind-reading each other and running off— _slice_. 

“Ow, hey fuck you!”

Oops. He’d accidentally hit a Tribesman. A teenage girl with dark skin like his, a stupid leaf hat, and a little hair between her eyebrows. 

“Fuck you, my wrist is broken!” Fabian said, ducking an ice shard she sent at him. 

“Whose side are you even on?” the girl asked.

“I dunno, yours, I think?” Fabian stabbed at a nearby Solesian as a show of good faith and then ran away, courageously. 

Adaine and Aelwyn grabbed Fig while the woman who’d been yelling at her wasn’t looking and dragged her away from the center of the fight. 

“Oh, just let me go in alone, it’ll be _fiinneeee_ ,” Aelwyn said, imitating Fig’s voice eerily well.

“How the hell was I supposed to know my mom would be here?”

“That’s no excuse to set a building on fire!” Aelwyn said.

“Don’t think about the past. Where’s Fabian?” Fig asked. She whipped her head around wildly but it was hard to see anything with all the rocks and bodies being thrown around.

“He’s fine probably. Can we meet your mom?” Adaine asked.

“Not right _now_!” Aelwyn was beginning, just now, to truly hate her life. She spotted Fabian running around aimlessly, and snagged him by the back of his collar.

“Where’ve you been?” she asked.

“Where’ve _I_ been? Where the god damned fuck have _you_ been? This is why I should be the leader, I—“

“Your mother told me to be the leader, so I’m the leader! Let’s GO.” Aelwyn pushed Fig and Fabian in the general direction of the swamp with a very large and conspicuous blast of air.

“My mother would never say such a thing,” Fabian said, five minutes later when they were watching the fight from the tree line opposite from where they’d started not 20 minutes before.

“Well she did, so you’d better get over it,” Aelwyn said.

“Hey Fig,” Adaine said loudly, obviously trying to change the subject, “So that was your mom?”

“Yeah,” Fig said. “She’s the worst.”

“I’d say, objectively, out of all our moms she’s in the middle,” Aelwyn said. 

It wasn’t long before the Solesian earthbenders coalesced to build a wall around their camp, and the Tribesmen retreated for fear of getting caught inside. Sandra Lynn tracked down Fig and the rest of them frighteningly easily.

“Hello Mrs., uh, Fig’s mom,” Adaine said, bowing. “Adaine Abernant. This is my sister, Aelwyn, and our friend, Fabian Seacaster.”

“Sandra Lynn Faeth.” Sandra Lynn returned the bow. “Why don’t I walk you into town, and we can talk about what all this is about."


End file.
